


Ops

by Maiika



Category: Naruto
Genre: Anbu missions, Canon Compliant, Character Study, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, No relationships are tagged but there will be sexual relationships portrayed, Past and Present, Promiscuity, Snippets, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 03:58:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19243381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maiika/pseuds/Maiika
Summary: The best of the Hidden Leaf’s Shinobi become jounin.  The best of the best live a different lifestyle along with their ANBU comrades.  Their missions are taxing, physically and psychologically.  Emotions can lead to the failure of vital missions or death.The rules of humanity don’t apply in the black ops.





	1. First and Last

**Author's Note:**

> This is mostly inspired by the Kakashi ANBU filller, but expands upon it to give a plausible picture of experiences in the black ops and relationships between all of the characters involved in these operations. It’s going to be pretty dark. As chapters update, will add tags as needed.

Focus on the mission.

 

Not the screams.  Not the blood. Not the swift rush of air marking the end of yet another unfortunate victim.

 

For ten years, he’s operated in this darkness.  For Kakashi Hatake, it fits like a second skin. This painted porcelain mask, a part of his face.  This red swirling tattoo, a part of his identity. Team Ro, his greatest distraction from life’s tragedies.

 

And when  _ this _ mission ends, this  _ last _ mission before Lord Third pulls him out of the black ops altogether, Kakashi will have to say goodbye to everything he’s known for the past decade.

 

Crouched in a tree, watching the night’s final targets converse unbeknownst of his presence, Kakashi debates how he can ever leave this.  Assassinations are a comfort in comparison to  _ children _ .  How can the hokage want to place genin under his care?  The ANBU is a perfect placement for trash ninja like him.  Falling from the tree with panther-like grace, slashing at his first target’s throat with his kunai, watching the blood spray toward the other gawking target,  _ this _ is Kakashi doing what he’s meant to do.

 

When he forms the signs, moving his gloved hands so fast that the hand-sealing ninja in front of him fails to react ahead of Chidori’s ominous sparks, Kakashi knows this might be his final kill for a long time.  He feels as if  _ he _ lights up when these sparks fly and this power radiates from his palm.  The electricity charging through the atmosphere is like a charge to his psyche, a revival of the parts of him which feel dead inside.  He’ll have no need for this or hundreds of his other mastered jutsu while on missions chasing lost cats and escorting low-risk clients.  He is functional here with the ANBU. He is revered here, even - sad as that is. As much as he loathes the way others in the ANBU regard his reputation which has been embellished over the years with his high kill record and features in neighboring hidden village’s bingo books, Kakashi cannot deny that this position has been a good fit.  What isn’t a good fit for him are genin. 

 

Kakashi plunges his Chidori through the chest of the screaming man about to strike with an attack of his own which moves too slow for the Sharingan.  These ninja will never repeat what they learned earlier to another soul, and with this final strike, Kakashi’s mission is complete. Maybe it wasn’t necessary to go as far as annihilation, but it was the cleanest way to tie up loose ends.  Kakashi is one of the best at what he does. He wonders why he’s being punished for his record of excellent service. His days -  _ years _ \- spent in ANBU’s violent atmosphere were delightful in comparison to the traumas he suffered earlier in his life.  Now, he’ll have to start over again, and in a role which will require abandoning the behaviors, tactics and skills he’s honed over the years for his purposes in dark ops.

 

His reassignment to jounin leader is a cruel joke, he decides as he straightens, watches the final corpse fall at his feet, and wipes the blood from his gloves.  Kakashi Hatake has been ANBU, through and through, from the day Minato-Sensei assigned him the position.

 

He might leave the black ops, but he can never let down the mask.

 

* * *

 

It was all about focus - not on his comrades, but on the mission.

 

This would be Kakashi’s first team mission since his appointment to ANBU by Minato-Sensei.  At thirteen, Kakashi now found himself clinging to the rule book he lived by after his father’s untimely death, ignoring Obito’s valiant effort to teach him his philosophy had to be abandoned.  He needed to protect himself - no attachment with new teams. If he was to return to the field with comrades at his side - comrades more likely to die than those from any other teams - he needed to turn to the old rules.  

 

The team was composed of three faceless, masked men and a new captain.  All older and taller than him. All more experienced in this type of combat.  Most as unsociable as he was, with the exception of one smartmouth who didn’t want to stop talking in the locker rooms.  But he was easily ignored, and once past the Hidden Leaf Village’s gates, grew as quiet as the rest of them.

 

It seemed everyone in ANBU was as well-acquainted with the practice of focusing on the mission as Kakashi.  He found them to be professional; leagues above other shinobi. Given his inability to save his two childhood comrades, and his recent development of panic whenever Chidori sparked to life and reminded him of failing them, Kakashi felt he didn’t belong.  He didn’t know why Minato-Sensei asked him to join such an elite group. But he was here now, so he would prove he could do what he was brought here to do.

 

Their mission was simple.  A group of four Sand ANBU had stolen Hidden Leaf mission scrolls.  Their objective was to retrieve the scrolls and interrogate the ninja to determine how much they knew.  This interrogation part would be new to Kakashi. It wouldn’t be a simple question and answer session. ANBU from the Hidden Sand wouldn’t surrender what they knew easily, but the Leaf had to know how far their secrets had been compromised.  Their team’s orders were to acquire information from these enemy ANBU by any means necessary.

 

“Hound,” the Captain said as they raced through the trees, addressing Kakashi by the appearance of his mask, “slow down.  These Sand ANBU have a sensory type on their team who will sense us coming long before we’re within range.”

 

Kakashi slowed and frowned, irritated at being reprimanded so early in the mission.  He should have known that. He’d been debriefed with the rest of them. But he was letting himself become distracted with anticipating whether or not he would lose control again once the action started.  He gritted his teeth, reminding himself to focus on the mission at hand.

 

“Stop here,” the Captain said.

 

The Captain dropped to the forest floor silently.  The others followed. They weren’t far from where the trees ended and would soon converge with Sand territory.  It was imperative they stop the Sand team now, while they still had the advantage of the trees. Kakashi had questions, like why his captain was wasting their time with a stop like this, but couldn’t waste their time anymore than it was already being wasted.  Kakashi loathed working under other leadership. He looked up at the man with light brown hair spiking above his beaked mask, the man to whom’s “better judgment” he was supposed to defer now. After a long pause, Kakashi was convinced Hawk was an inexperienced ANBU Captain.  Death was not an unlikely outcome on this mission, but the only thing scaring Kakashi was the idea of failing to complete it.

 

“We’ll have to separate to throw them off,” Hawk said.  “You two,” he said with a nod to Cougar and Bear, “will divert East.”  He pointed to Kakashi. “You’ll divert West.” He nodded to Pig. “You and I will hit them straight on.”

 

Definitely inexperienced, Kakashi decided with a silent groan.  He could have just said “Box Maneuver” and avoided all this wasted explanation while the enemy was getting away.

 

Hawk looked squarely at Kakashi.  “It’s the Box Maneuver.”

 

Kakashi grunted.  The Captain was  _ coddling _ Kakashi with this nonsense.  This may have been his first team mission with the ANBU, and he may have been the youngest on the team, but Kakashi was no slouch - not in the field, at least.  This waste of time for his benefit was a real slap in the face. He turned his back to his team, ready to run west.

 

“Hound!” Hawk called.  Kakashi paused, but didn’t turn around.  “Do you understand what to do if you encounter the enemy?”

 

“Yeah,” Kakashi grumbled with a glance over his shoulder.  “Do you?”

 

A snicker came from the loud mouthed one, Cougar, while everyone else only seemed to stare at Kakashi, their expressions unreadable behind their masks, but their silence speaking volumes.  Kakashi was sure his captain got the message. If he was to be on this team, he would not work being treated as a child. He wanted to be just like the rest of them. He bounded forward, racing through the trees, not looking back this time.

 

When the first Sand ANBU came into view in a creepy devil-horned, sharp-toothed mask, he already had an attack launched at Kakashi.  Kakashi had smelled them sooner, like cacti and arrid air, so he should have been more prepared for this, but the spiked barbs headed his way were coming in too fast.  

 

He ducked to the left, spiraling to the ground and narrowly dodging the barbs while he weaved the signs for his counter-technique.  A second after his feet hit the dirt, he slammed his palms to the ground, raising a mud wall. Something slammed against his wall while it was still raising.  It cracked in front of Kakashi’s eyes. He created a clone and sent him around the wall to attack. The grunts and pounds of flesh against flesh penetrated his mud wall, muffled, as his double engaged with the enemy.  

 

A sideways glance confirmed what Kakashi expected to find, the next Sand ANBU emerging from the trees to join the fight.  This one wore the green Sand ANBU vest on a slighter build with long blonde hair hanging from behind the narrow-eyed, pointed-nosed mask.  From behind, Kakashi spotted Cougar moving in for a stealth attack. With Kakashi still hidden behind his mud wall, the newcomers were unaware of his presence.  He watched as Cougar threw a kunai into the thigh of the incoming Sand ANBU, pulling a feminine scream from behind that hideous mask. 

 

Memories flooded Kakashi’s mind: slashing his kunai through the mask of the Sand ANBU on the other side of his mud wall, trading hand to hand blows, sinking his kunai deep into the enemy’s chest, planting his foot in his abdomen and shoving him away, something flashing in his left field of vision, a spark of pain, a spray of blood and dust.  His clone. He’d been killed by attack from another enemy. That was three now. Only one left to reveal him or herself. This meant the rest of his team couldn’t be far from assisting him and Cougar.

 

Kakashi jumped behind the blonde Sand ANBU limping to a standing position and reaching for Cougar’s kunai embedded in her leg.  He set his hand over hers, sinking the weapon in deeper before she could remove it. She yelped and writhed, but couldn’t get away.

 

“Don’t move,” he growled at her.

 

“Captain!” Cougar called, hailing the two ANBU who fell in beside Kakashi at that moment.  “The enemy is down.”

 

Pig raised something in the air, kneeling over the final unaccounted for Sand ANBU, twisting his arm behind his back.  “I’ve got the scrolls.”

 

“Read them, Pig.  Check their authenticity.  Now all we need is the information.”  Hawk turned his gaze on the Sand ANBU still lingering by Kakashi’s crumbling mud wall, the only enemy not restrained by members of his team.  “Tell us what you learned from the Leaf scrolls you stole.”

 

“Didn’t read them,” said the Sand ANBU as he held Hawk’s gaze.

 

Hawk backhanded the ANBU and planted his foot on top of his head, planting his face into the dirt.  “No lying. If we don’t start getting answers, we’ll pick your team members off one by one.”

 

The woman pinned by kunai scoffed at Kakashi.  Her body tensed. “You think I’m worried a kid like this will go through with that?”

 

Kakashi sunk the kunai deeper, felt the warm blood seep from her leg wound into his glove, listened to her scream and then heave as she dropped to her knees.  “Don’t get up.” He paused, cocking his head at the way she trembled as she looked up at him. “Unless you want to be first.”

 

“Sh-Sharingan,” she whispered, her blue eyes beneath the mask now fixed on Kakashi’s eyes.  Her body went slack and compliant, sinking lower to the ground.

 

The Captain resumed his questioning, prompting results from his quarry with a few brutal jabs.  Kakashi’s fingers flexed around the bloody kunai, against the warm softness of the woman’s shaking thigh.  He was all too aware of the scene around him, the total control his team had over the other, the fact that the slightest movement from this woman would require him to execute her.  These Sand ANBU had landed themselves in this position by stealing those scrolls. Kakashi could very well  _ be _ them in a few years if he continued down this path.  And yet he felt no sympathy for them. He felt no anger toward the theft of the Hidden Leaf’s scrolls.  He only felt dedication to protecting the secrets of the Hidden Leaf. He had killed during the war in order to protect himself and his friends, and didn’t regret it because he’d felt he had no choice.  

 

Now, he had a choice.  Yet, he still felt he could kill this woman at his mercy in an instant if it became necessary.  She flinched and Kakashi’s breath hitched. His eyes widened as he realized he  _ hoped _ for her to move and force his hand.  Fortunately, that wasn’t completely reliant on  _ her _ actions.

 

“Hound.”

 

Kakashi looked askance to Hawk.  His heart raced. Hawk’s quarry had become tight lipped again.  At the nod of his captain, Kakashi slipped gloved fingers beneath the woman’s chin, felt the way her jaw tensed as both her hands tried for wresting the kunai from her thigh and Kakashi’s fingers, and heard her final exhalation before his sharp pull rotated her chin.  The ANBU at Hawk’s mercy screamed. Kakashi released his grip on her chin falling heavy in his hand and the kunai embedded in her leg. Her body hit the ground with a thud.

 

“Now,” Hawk said, pressing his shoulders back and turning to his quarry, “educate me again.”

 

The threat in his voice was enough for Kakashi to feel down to his bones.  For the first time, he had a sense of the reason Lord Fourth had promoted this man to a Captain position in the elite ANBU.  He watched with a keen eye as the Sand ANBU looked to his one last Sand teammate remaining beside Pig and raised a trembling hand toward Hawk.

 

He went on to confess to whom they’d passed on their information.  Now it was vital their team relay these findings to the Hokage. Hawk hammered his fist into his quarry’s temple, rendering him unconscious.  While Cougar cleaned up the evidence from the scene, Kakashi stared down at his glove now coated in blood. The blood endlessly tainting his hands was a brighter red and more viscous than ever, but Kakashi’s hands had never felt so clean.  

 

For the first time in months, he couldn’t see  _ Rin’s _ blood on his hands.

 

When he looked up, his captain’s gaze was fixed on him.  Kakashi dropped his hands by his sides and stared back. Hawk’s enduring stare burned into him.

 

“What?” Kakashi said.

 

With a grunt, Hawk turned and waved a hand over his shoulder for the team to follow.  It was time to return to the village. Kakashi hung back as the rest of the team moved to follow their captain.  It wasn’t until a fist bumped his shoulder that Kakashi stirred. He shot Cougar a glare.

 

“What,  _ Captain _ ,” Cougar hissed in his ear as he passed.

 

Kakashi scoffed.  He had no trouble respecting authority when it came to the hokage, but some people were not as easily followed.  Besides, he didn’t like that look Hawk gave him, even if it was obscured behind his mask.

 

It came as little surprise when after their return, Kakashi was summoned to a psychological evaluation, ordered by Lord Fourth at Hawk’s suggestion, no doubt.  No matter. Kakashi could act like whatever kind of typical Shinobi kid his evaluator wanted to see. He could be as jovial as Guy or as sassy as Anko or as carefree as...Obito.  

 

The thought brought a smile to his face, even as he stretched across his bed and opened a book instructing him on the intricate skills of deception he’d have to master for his next mission, from which he would most definitely  _ not _ be pulled due to failure of a psychiatric evaluation.


	2. Coping Mechanisms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sai and Yugao

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m playing with an unusual format here, where each chapter will have a scene of recent events and a scene in the past. Almost every character involved with the ANBU will have a POV scene. The first chapter featured Kakashi in both scenes, but this one features Sai and Yugao, as most chapters will feature two character POVs.

There’s nothing like the scratch of his quill on paper to draw away these restless feelings.

 

As Sai sketches a curve, letting the black ink wash over the white space of his page, he feels his racing heart begin to slow.  The more lines he draws with his fingers clutching at the sketchbook in his grip - the more a figure comes into view - the more he realizes how unreasonable his body’s reaction to that interaction in the other room had been.

 

The figure smiles.  The swipe of ink at the corner of his mouth makes the lip turn up in the same quirk to his lip as the client who thanked Sai and his superiors for completing this mission.  A quirk just like Shin used to wear.

 

Sai’s palms are sweating, he realizes, when the quill slips in his grasp, causing the ink to meet the page lower and heavier than where he’d intended.  He heaves a breath as he glances through the black curtain of his bangs to the closed door sealing him in this room. If his captain were to find him here - drawing - while their client still needs to be debriefed from their mission, it will mean punishment when they return to the Foundation‍.

 

Sai shouldn’t be doing this.  

 

Sai _has_ to do this.

 

His eyes lower to the page again and find an opportunity in the misplaced ink.  That black splatter sits where the center of the figure’s chest will fall. Below the grinning mouth, there is room for a trail of blood to shape the cleft of the chin, and Sai draws it with a fine, stuttered line.  He extends the splatter on the chest to detail the delicate tears of clothing found around a hole like this - a hole like his client’s younger sister’s body now flaunts, laid on the floor of the hotel room next door.  Sai still cannot believe a young man such as this client could request such a thing. It shouldn’t be hard to believe, not after all he’s seen. Not after his training.  

 

Maybe it’s only hard to believe because he looks like _him._

 

Sai’s breath is quickening again, he realizes.  It begins when he thinks of Shin. He swallows down the bile rising in his throat as he pushes Shin from his mind and narrows his eyes at the smiling, bleeding boy on his page.  The drawing is completed in a matter of seconds, but Sai feels he’s spent too long shifting through autonomic responses and sensations which are unreasonable at this time on a mission such as this.  He shuts the sketchbook and rises to his feet with his gaze locked on the door. He is Anbu. He has no emotion, no hesitation about the nature of his missions. The girl had to die, for reasons unknown to him.  It doesn’t matter that the man who ordered her death was her own brother. It doesn’t matter that Sai feels this way, with sensations he cannot explain. He closes his eyes, envisioning his art. Every sharp detail is fixed in his mind when he lets out his breath.  He flexes his fingers, finding the control regained. His eyes relax and his chest stops heaving as he approaches the door.

 

No matter what his missions entail, this is always how it must end.  It is rare for him to require his pen for more than its deadly purposes with his signature jutsu, but when he puts it to his sketchbook, it undoes all the wrong.  The knots in his gut. The furrow in his brow. The scowl on his lips. The questions on his tongue. 

 

He sketches away the memories and the desires to right the wrongs which he’s been taught are only right.

 

* * *

 

 

Yugao couldn’t shake that feeling.

 

Her breathing was rapid.  Her heart pounded in her chest.  Her face twisted in a grimace. She held herself, gloved hands wrapped around bare arms below her red tattoo.  It was the badge of the job which put her in this situation; brought her reeling in these feelings; dropped her to her knees so often, she almost didn’t know why she was here.

 

But then there was the flip side.

 

Watching her captain move with the speed of lightning, the very _element_ held in his hand before it skewered through one target after another.  The rush she felt when she narrowly dodged an attack and returned it with a slice of her weapon.  The excitement that went with using her unique skills to the best of her ability. 

 

It was all tainted in her memory now, each pleasant thought tarnished by flashes of their cherubic faces splattered with blood.  Technically, by villager standards, Yugao herself would still be considered a child. But not in the ninja world. For Shinobi, the deaths of twelve-year-olds were as normal as the deaths of men in their twenties.  The team of genin she’d killed with Sharingan Kakashi at her side were threats to their client and wouldn’t have been any more threatening if they were older.

 

Yugao flicked a glance to the white wall to her left, which was the only thing separating her and her latest teammate on this two-man job.  Kakashi had parted from her at his door with a half-hearted wave, looking as stoic and composed as he had when she was introduced to him. She was amazed by how little their mission seemed to bother him.  He seemed to have an incredible ability to compartmentalize.  

 

A twinge of phantom pain flickered in Yugao’s side and she moaned.  She needed...something. She quivered at the chill that ran up her spine as a girl’s sharp cry echoed in her ears.  She choked down a sob, resisting the urge to let the emotions seize her. Holding her head high, Yugao took a deep breath and reached for the door.  She was ANBU. She would not cry. She would not let these emotions destroy her. She needed a release. She needed to know how Kakashi did it.

 

By the time she launched out her door, knocked on his, waited long enough to reconsider knocking, and finally was greeted by his slow opening of the door and unimpressed face, Yugao felt a little less of the tightness in her limbs and the churning in her stomach.  Only a little.

 

Kakashi pressed his hands into the pockets of the same gray ANBU pants he’d worn during the mission (evidenced by the dark stains of blood on the front of his thighs), though his armor and gear had been removed.  The taut muscles of his chest were covered only by the sleeveless black top that concealed his pale skin all the way to the bridge of his nose. He hadn’t bothered with his headband, though he kept his uncovered Sharingan closed as his right eye scanned Yugao’s appearance.

 

“You look like hell,” he said.

 

Yugao laughed sharply and tucked a stray hair behind her ear.  “Well. I feel like it, Captain.”

 

He opened his posture and waved her into his dimly-lit guest room.  “You can come in if you want to feel like hell together, I guess. But only if you drop the ‘Captain’. The mission’s over.”

 

Yugao raised a brow as she stepped past Kakashi, registering his musky scent as the air whirred between them.  She was surprised at the awkward mannerism he exhibited as he invited her in, rubbing the back of his head. He was a newly-made captain among the ANBU forces.  It made sense he wasn’t quite comfortable with the title yet. Hell, Yugao had trouble even accepting she was one of the elite ANBU. However, of everything about this situation, Yugao found Kakashi’s admission that _he_ felt like hell hardest to wrap her head around.

 

She shook her head, causing her loose locks to swish to the left in a purple blur as she turned to face her captain and the closing door.  She thought she caught a flash of something in his open eye, but if it was anything, it passed before she could register its meaning. Kakashi’s hooded eye turned impassive as he waved his hand toward a small table flanked by two wooden chairs.

 

“Drink?” he offered.

 

Yugao nodded, trying to ignore the lump in her throat that forbid her from voicing her agreement.  With a shaky exhale, she approached the nearest chair and let her eyes wander over the bottle of sake on the table and two small porcelain cups.  Interesting, that he washed his terrors down with alcohol. Interesting that he already had a cup ready for her.

 

Kakashi scowled when she met his eye.  “I _wasn’t_ expecting company.  The room just had this set.”

 

Yugao slid into the chair with another wordless nod.  The light over the table seemed to bounce off Kakashi’s silver spikes of hair in a way that pierced Yugao’s eyes.  She shielded them from the glare by looking down, turning her eyes to the empty white cup with a stream of clear sake funneling into it from the bottle in Kakashi’s gloveless hand.

 

She hadn’t noticed, before, how his knuckles bore so many callouses, likely caused by fists pounding against flesh.  It almost made him look older, like he wasn’t the teenager she knew him to be. But she supposed the look in his eyes gave that impression more than his hands.  Especially when he revealed that red Sharingan eye with a look that could chill the most intimidating of enemies.

 

She looked up sharply, realizing she’d heard a sound from Kakashi that rang as a question.  Her jaw dropped as she watched his sake cup descend from his masked face, as if he’d snuck a sip while her mind was occupied elsewhere.

 

“Well?” Kakashi drawled.

 

Not knowing what he’d asked, Yugao fumbled for her sake cup, sipped the scorching liquid and cleared her throat as she set it down.  “Thank you.”

 

Kakashi shrugged.  “It’s nothing.”

 

A wash of dread fell over Yugao, heavy with the beat of silence that seemed to dominate the room.  No words had to be said for Yugao to know their minds had both turned back to the mission. Kakashi’s open eye was dark and sullen, lowered to a meaningless whorl on the wood of the table.  The effect of the sake on Yugao was almost immediate, warming her belly and numbing the pain she felt as it tried to overtake her, but it was too powerful for sake alone to numb.  

 

She’d butchered _children_.  Children whose friends waited for them back at their village, whose jounin Sensei would likely feel their loss as greatly as whatever family they might have had.  Those children tried to stop her mission, used jutsu trying to kill her and her captain, and for that, they had to die. But knowing that and feeling it were two different things.  Neither her reasoning or the sake could remove the stab of guilt she felt every time one of their faces flashed in her mind, which, unfortunately, was happening frequently.

 

“Dammit,” Kakashi said, slamming down his empty cup again.  Yugao knew he’d refilled it, but again must’ve failed to see him drink.

 

She looked up at him to find him looking through her, more at the distant wall than the attentiveness on her face.  She waited, expecting him to go on and explain his outburst, but he seemed to have nothing more to add. There was nothing to say.

 

Yugao licked her lips and reached for Kakashi, coming just short of making contact before she had the good sense to pull away.  And yet, as she tucked her hands tightly in her lap beneath the table, they itched for the contact of which she’d just deprived herself.  If only her hands could be used for some good, for anything better than killing and destroying, she might feel less guilt the next time she raised them.  

 

Kakashi was just as bad as she was, with every act of violence she witnessed on that mission, if not worse.  If anyone deserved the scorching touch of her deadly hands, it was him. And suddenly, she was less upset with herself.  Her self loathing turned on him and clashed with the admiration she felt for her well-repudiated captain. He was so handsome beneath the light.  Every groove of his lean muscle highlighted, his face cast in darkness beneath the shadow of his silver hair. When she met his eye this time, Kakashi was looking _at_ her.  His Sharingan was open, the tomoe spinning slowly.

 

Yugao drew her lips into a hard line.  “They were just children,” she whispered with an edge to her voice.

 

Kakashi quirked a brow and said stubbornly, “It was our mission.”

 

Yugao nodded, feeling deflated and defeated by the heavy truth of it.  “It was.”

 

So this was supposed to be the feeling of success in the ANBU.  Yugao’s earlier missions hadn’t tested her emotions to this extent.  This was the first time she walked away feeling like she lost a piece of herself.  And maybe this was how it had to be, to protect the village. To work in the shadows.  No one could bear this the way ANBU could. This was why she was selected to join here, rather than her classmates not cut out for this sort of darkness.  She could cope, but she needed something more than sake to distract her from the trauma.  

 

She reached for Kakashi again, this time willing herself to proceed until she felt the warmth of his skin, his twitching knuckles under her fingertips.  He looked up sharply. His knuckles tapped beneath her grasp as she dared to squeeze her hand around his. He stood, his chair groaning in protest against the wood floor.  For a moment, she thought the flash in his eyes meant Kakashi would push her away, even strike her for being so daring and inappropriate with her captain. Instead, his fingers wrapped around her wrist, drawing her out of her chair and into his warmth as his body pressed flush against hers.

 

Overwhelmed by a surge of relief, Yugao felt a desire to kiss him.  The scorch of the touch of his fingers left her yearning for more, and the softness of his lips would only increase the intensity of her relief.  Her misery would be forgotten. It seemed so far away now. In the same breath in which Yugao reached for his mask, Kakashi sent a kunai flying to the door - striking the light switch.

 

The room went black.

 

Yugao didn’t care that she didn’t get a chance to glimpse Kakashi’s face.  The feel of his lips - more silky than she imagined - against her own stole the breath from her lungs.  The flashes of children’s miserable, bloody faces were replaced with imagined images of Kakashi’s chin rubbing against hers, his fingers stroking her sides, his knee pressing between her thighs.  On her next exhale, Yugao slipped her tongue between her teeth, pleased to find Kakashi’s hidden lips parting to allow her access to his wet tongue. It was working. She could forget this way. As she parted from Kakashi to catch some air, wringing her fingers into the fabric of his shirt, she realized it might not be enough.  The momentary lapse in contact allowed a painful memory to slip through and penetrate her defenses, making her cry out.

 

Judging by the way Kakashi clutched onto her tightly, not wanting to let go, he felt the agony clawing at him, too.  He wanted to suppress it as much as she did.

 

Yugao ripped the shirt over Kakashi’s head.  Then she tore off hers. In the dark, with the heat of his bare chest pressed against hers, the taste of his lips sweet on her tongue, she found the relief she needed.  And when he thrusted into her for the first time that night, she found a new escape that had nothing to do with sake.

 

In the morning, waking in Kakashi’s bed, Yugao was far from surprised when she found the mask in place on his face.  She hummed, satisfied, as she languished in a stretch, and allowed Kakashi to sleep and maintain his privacy. She wasn’t stupid, of course.  She knew he was more alert than he let on. But that was fine with her. There was nothing to talk about. ANBU would be fools to pursue relationships in this line of work.  Friendships were difficult enough. It was impossible to think of any teammate in the field as anything more than a colleague, because they all knew the likelihood of death.

 

Kakashi was a colleague.  A damn good one at that, one to whom’s level of reputation and ability Yugao strived to reach some day.  He was, it also seemed, as new to this method of coping as she was. It gave Yugao pride, knowing she made her teammate feel better.  Kakashi had excelled at easing _her_ guilt.  But that was all this was.  For Yugao, this boy was Kakashi of the Sharingan, known as Friend Killer among less friendly ANBU circles, a respected captain in the ANBU.  Nothing more.

 

She’d found a coping mechanism that worked. She hoped to never find herself in need of it again.  Nevertheless, armed with the knowledge of it, she was ready to push aside the faces that might have haunted her and face her next mission, no matter how tragic its outcome.

 

This was her job.


	3. Initiation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itachi and Tenzo

Itachi knows exactly what they’re doing.

 

Just like with the ANBU, the Akatsuki has its way of filtering out those who don’t belong.  Itachi recalls kunai tossed in his path as a young boy, the mocking laughter, the dead stares.  The only ANBU to give him a genuine welcome was his captain.

 

Genuine.  What an interesting word.

 

Itachi knows there is no such thing.  There is always another motive, another reason hidden underneath the seemingly genuine act. He would know.  His motive for being here remains hidden from the rest of them except one, and he plans to keep it this way.

 

He needs to bide his time as the new inductee, and take his chance when the time comes to prove his worth.

 

So when Sasori turns to Itachi, expressing his agreement with Orochimaru to trade partners, Itachi quietly nods.  Being polite. Being patient. Because when Orochimaru does what Itachi already knows he intends to do, and reveals his darker intentions behind welcoming Itachi so warmly, Itachi will be ready to strike, but not before then.

 

When he acquires a new partner and is fully integrated into the Akatsuki’s ranks, Itachi can then move more freely within the Akatsuki.

 

Not before then.

 

 He knows how initiation works.

 

* * *

 

“Tenzo, welcome to Team Ro,” Kakashi said.

 

Kinoe of no past didn’t know what to say.  Cat of the Root didn’t know what to think.  _ Tenzo _ of the ANBU certainly didn’t know what to do.  Whoever he was anymore. Now apparently, his identity included a member of Team Ro.  A member of the  _ hokage’s _ ANBU.

 

The team looked on at him, flanked by metal lockers.  They wore masks of red, black and white in varying patterns, shapes and designs, but underneath, they were all the same.   _ These _ ANBU weren’t as different from Root as they seemed to think.  They all killed. They all lied. They all hurt. They all followed orders without feeling.

 

Kinoe didn’t know what to feel.  So he didn’t.

 

He went to the locker opened for him by Kakashi, went through the motions of checking through his stowed belongings, acting as if he didn’t feel Kakashi’s sharp gaze on him.  Kakashi’s posture said he was at ease, so he obviously didn’t want Kinoe to acknowledge his scrutiny. Still, Kinoe suspected Kakashi watched because he didn’t completely trust him.  Kinoe  _ had _ tried to kill him, after all.

 

So when Team Ro tested him at their first training session, Kinoe wasn’t surprised in the least.  He grinned and bore it, feeling their abuse was a necessary hurdle for him to pass in order for these shinobi to trust him with their lives out in the field.  When Kakashi gave him a pat on the back, telling him he was a great addition to their team, Kinoe’s smile might have been genuine. He might’ve even liked hearing his new name rolling off Kakashi’s tongue.  He would never let the team know, but he couldn’t help feeling a sense of ease around his new captain.

 

Kakashi was excellent at  _ faking _ nice, though, Tenzo would soon learn.  He might not have been cold-hearted enough to kill his old genin teammate as rumor once had Tenzo believing, but there was no doubt parts of his heart were cold, closed off.

 

From what Tenzo had seen, as long as he could remember, they could all be cold.  Those of the highest ranks were the worst. For Kakashi to be a captain, he wasn’t so bad.  Tenzo wondered sometimes if he was like the rest of them. He had so much blood on his hands, he couldn’t imagine that it  _ wasn’t _ the case.  But he felt no animosity toward anyone, no anger, not even at Lord Danzo.  Tenzo only lived to serve his purpose, to enhance the ANBU and protect the hokage with his rare and valued jutsu.  If that made him a monster, then well. He supposed he was like the rest of them.  

 

Now, he had a place with Team Ro, alongside other teens as poisoned by darkness as he was.


	4. Seduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danzo and Tenzo

Danzo has always been attuned to the art of seduction, but his development in the art has never been evidenced more clearly than in his old age.  This isn’t limited to the sexual connotation, though in his younger days, he’d been skilled at that, too. These days, he seduces with power. Promises.  Position.  

 

No one can resist Danzo Shimura once they expose their desires to him.  All it takes is the slightest inkling of what they want - a hitch of breath, a spark in the eyes, a gleam in the way they look at something - and he knows even if they refuse what he will use to tempt them, they will be back to accept his proposition.  He’s taught this art well to his ANBU over the years. He’s used it to entice ninja from the hokage’s ANBU to _his_ Foundation when finding skilled Shinobi he can use in his ranks.  He uses it today to convince the Shinobi under his command that they are not here because they have to be, but because this is where they want to be.  No place in the Hidden Leaf is more elite than its foundation, Root.

 

Perhaps one or two were swayed from seeing things his way over the years, but only by others skilled in the art of seduction as well.  That is the hazard in teaching such an art to cunning young Shinobi. It is the hazard always in dealing with deception and lies sheltered beneath the truth.

 

And now he must seduce again.  Because young Sai does not believe in Danzo’s ways as Hokage.  The boy may pretend as if he does, but he cannot hide the look in his usually vacant eyes - the look that screams of wariness to eyes as perceptive as Danzo’s.  Other Root Shinobi firmly established as _his_ can easily be planted to keep an eye on the boy’s activities, but that will never sway the boy from the influences of that jinchuriki’s sunny smile or the smooth tongues of experienced Shinobi like Hatake and Kinoe.  So Danzo looks at Sai with a smile colored with caring and concern and assures him of the importance of restoring the Hidden Leaf to its prior glory as quickly as possible. He will not fail as Hokage. He will keep the Hidden Leaf’s jinchuriki from the Akatsuki, whatever it takes.

 

He will seduce Sai back to his perspective, like he has done with hundreds of Shinobi throughout his life, like all the best Shinobi know how to do.

 

* * *

 

 

Tenzo tried to stop his panting as he ran up the apartment steps lit only by the lanterns hanging every few steps.  He couldn’t let his senpai see him losing control or he would be teased mercilessly. But he needed advice, and Kakashi was his best option.  He certainly couldn’t go to the hokage or Danzo about this, and not the other Team Ro members whom he suspected would be no help. He should’ve already _known_ after all of Root’s rigorous training.  He should’ve been able to handle this last solo mission without a hitch.  He’d failed utterly.

 

When Tenzo knocked on Kakashi’s door, he felt the heat of embarrassment flushing up his neck, but he pushed it aside as he _knew_ to push aside and master his emotions.  He shook his head, mentally chastising himself at his recent failure to do just that.  When Kakashi’s door crept open, one dark eye peering out from behind it, Tenzo exhaled.

 

“Senpai.”

 

“Tenzo,” Kakashi said, opening the door wider and pressing his back against the doorframe, revealing his smile-creased eye.  It was a rare sight these days, Kakashi without his ANBU gear on. He only wore the black tank and mask now with his hitai-ate slung around his silver head of hair and over his Sharingan.  “What brings you knocking at my door?”

 

Tenzo laughed, stepping into the apartment as Kakashi opened the door wider.  “I wasn’t going to appear in your _window_ .” He raised a brow at Kakashi as he shut the door, hoping he caught the hint about the behavior being rude, because frankly Tenzo was getting tired of the surprises at _his_ apartment.  “But I have a favor to ask you, Senpai.”

 

Kakashi’s eyelid lowered, as if he was disappointed with the request, before he gave Tenzo a shrug and turned for the seat at the kitchen table.  “Then ask.”

 

Tenzo took a deep breath and exhaled as he sat at the seat across from Kakashi.  He clasped his hands together, frowning when he noticed Kakashi observing his nervous tell as his fingers wrung together.  There would be no easy way to say this, he realized. He just had to spit it out.

 

“I failed my mission tonight,” Tenzo said quietly, unable to meet Kakashi’s gaze as he confessed.

 

“You?” Kakashi sounded stunned.  When Tenzo looked up at him, Kakashi’s appearance didn’t bear any of the conceit or sarcasm Tenzo expected to see.

 

“Yes,” Tenzo said, somewhat relieved.  “Among all the skills Shinobi should know, this mission tested the one I feel is my weakest.  I need to...improve, somehow, before this happens again.”

 

Kakashi rubbed his chin.  Tenzo didn’t like the gleam in Kakashi’s eye.  “Well,” Kakashi drawled, “I’m interested. What is Tenzo’s weakness?”

 

Tenzo rolled his eyes.  “Senpai. Be serious, please.”

 

“What?” Kakashi said, feigning innocence.  “I am. Very serious.”

 

“Well,” Tenzo started, and then he stopped.  

 

His mission had been confidential.  He couldn’t tell Kakashi about the op to retrieve a hidden piece of the Hidden Leaf’s history from a royal vault.  He couldn’t even identify the alluring teen daughter of the king who owned the vault, his target for access. Even though Kakashi was his superior, he hadn’t been a part of this mission.  Therefore, only Tenzo, his handler, and Lord Third were ever to know of this mission. Which he’d failed. He clenched his fists, recalling the fact that the artifact the hokage wanted was still locked in that damn vault.  Tenzo looked across the table at Kakashi, feeling his lips curve downwards at the corners. The only thing he could tell his Senpai was how he’d failed at the art of seduction. By the look in Kakashi’s eye, he was never going to let Tenzo live this one down.  Tenzo was starting to think he’d come to the wrong place. This had been a mistake. But there was no way for Tenzo to avoid this, now that he’d opened the topic.

 

He covered his eyes with his hand as he confessed, “It’s...Seduction.”

 

“Ah-hah.” Kakashi’s tone was flat, and to Tenzo’s surprise, after a long pause, no insult followed.  Kakashi leaned back in his chair and looked out his window. “And you want _me_ to help you with this particular skill...how?”

 

Tenzo fought the desire to roll his eyes.  “Don’t act like you don’t know.”

 

Kakashi was not only his senior in rank, but in age.  And if Tenzo was completely honest, in skill mastery. He knew Kakashi had faced missions such as this.  He knew Kakashi had completed them and succeeded at every one. Asking why he should be sought as a source of this knowledge when he knew very well _why_ was only an arrogant prod for praise and Tenzo wasn’t going to feed into it.  He growled under his breath, fighting the urge to slam his fist down on the table.  This was hard enough to ask as it was.

 

“All right,” Kakashi said, leaning across the table to meet Tenzo’s eyes.  “I know you can’t tell me about your mission, but I need some information to work with.  Where did you have a problem? Were you not able to strike the target’s interest?”

 

“No,” Tenzo said with a quivering sigh, his palms starting to sweat as he recalled the experience.  “I followed the procedures to the letter. She was completely absorbed in me and ignorant of my true aim.”

 

“Good.  Then what-“

 

Tenzo let his breath out in a rush of air as he recalled where it had all gone wrong.  The feel of her curves beneath his fingers, the taste of her lips, and finally the moment she touched him, turning the tables and taking the control from Tenzo’s hands.  He couldn’t control the way his hormone-driven, changing body responded, couldn’t ignore the temptations for the sake of the mission. He lost sight of his goal and left empty-handed.

 

“I lost control,” he whispered.

 

Kakashi let out a low, long hum.  Tenzo looked up, wondering what it meant.  He knew the sound well, knew Kakashi understood _something_ he wasn’t seeing yet.  Tenzo only wanted to know what that something was.

 

“So there was no other way to your target but through the help of this person,” Kakashi said slowly, “and in the act of seducing her, she caught _you_ off guard.  You should never let your desires control you, Tenzo.  You know that. It’s a basic ninja rule.”

 

“I _know_ that,” Tenzo growled, clenching his fingers tighter together until his nails dug in.  “But ignoring your desires for comfort, or food, or fun...that’s easy. I’ve mastered that since I was a kid.  This. This is _different_ and my body just...reacted.”

 

“It’s no different than any of those things,” Kakashi said with a chastising shake of his head.  “How do you ignore the desire for fun?”

 

Tenzo opened his mouth and shut it.  He expected that to be an easy answer, but could not think of how to put it into words.  Plenty of missions had involved spending time in fun-filled atmospheres, unable to participate in the festivities while hunting down targets or burrowing underground to the target location.  Tenzo never failed a mission _once_ for that temptation the way he had for this one.

 

“I-I just do,” Tenzo said with a shrug.

 

Kakashi sighed and hung his head.  “Tenzo, Tenzo. The trick is to convince your target you’re interested while having no desire to be with them.  You focus on your mission completion, as always. On an op, _that_ is the only desire.  As far as sexual desires, you satisfy those in your own time.”

 

As Kakashi wiggled his brow, Tenzo sputtered.  That familiar rush of heat crept up his face again.  He couldn’t believe his senpai was so open about this, but Tenzo supposed he had asked for it.  While he was asking, he might as well crack that jar open a little wider and get as much information from this awkward session as possible.

 

“H-how?” Tenzo said before gritting his teeth.

 

Kakashi reached for an orange book set on his table, one Tenzo had never seen before, with a prohibition sign and figures on the cover.  “I recently discovered this. If you ever need to satisfy yourself, it makes for a great distraction _and_ delivers a very entertaining plot.”

 

Tenzo met Kakashi’s eye as he took the book from his hand.  He turned it over, reading Icha Icha Makeout Tactics from the cover.  A quick flip through the pages confirmed that it described detailed accounts of tactics for _more_ than making out, which Tenzo wasn’t entirely sure would help his situation.  Nothing in the scene he read through sounded like anything he would want to recreate on a mission - or in his imagination alone in his own apartment.  He handed the book back to Kakashi, raising a dubious brow.

 

Kakashi took it and set it aside with a shrug.  “For times when you need _more_ than self-satisfaction,” he said as he stood from the table and approached Tenzo, an unusually deep timbre creeping into his voice, “remember that other ANBU Shinobi are challenged with this same problem, looking for release to take the edge off.  Maybe even someone on your own team might mutually benefit from practicing seduction together.”

 

Tenzo’s lips parted as he observed the subtle sway to Kakashi’s hips as he sat perched on the table right in front of Tenzo.  He was close enough to reach out and grab him. The way Kakashi’s one hooded eye swept over him, full of an intensity Tenzo only saw from him in battle, it didn’t feel like the captain he knew sitting before him.  He gulped, taking in the charged atmosphere he hadn’t felt in Kakashi’s apartment before. His Senpai was suggesting something...something Tenzo never would have imagined him suggesting.

 

“Kakashi-senpai,” Tenzo breathed, licking his dry lips.

 

“I truly am surprised you came to me for this, Tenzo,” Kakashi said, drawling Tenzo’s name purposefully as he leaned closer.  “I would’ve expected _you_ to excel at this skill.”

 

“I-I...would like to,” Tenzo said, his heart pounding as he anticipated what Kakashi would do next.

 

If Kakashi really made a move toward him, if he wanted something more, Tenzo had no idea what he’d do.  He never imagined being attracted to another guy. His head was all confused as it was, just dealing with the feelings of desire and trying to get a handle on those feelings for missions.  Kakashi was his friend. Of course as ANBU Shinobi trained to approach activities such as this without emotion, sex would have no impact on their friendship. Maybe that was Kakashi’s point.  Maybe this was a sort of training Kakashi thought would benefit Tenzo in handling this problem. He gulped, preparing himself mentally.

 

Kakashi’s hand came up to caress Tenzo’s cheek, lifting his gaze to meet Kakashi’s hooded eye.  “Do you want me, Tenzo?”

 

Tenzo’s eyes went wide.  He hadn’t expected to be put on the spot like this, and now that dreaded creep of heat was washing over his neck and face again.  He stuttered, unable to decide on what to say to his friend and captain as he remembered the feel of that kiss from his target on the mission, wondering if this meant Kakashi would expose what was hidden beneath his mask.  He couldn’t stop the blush from surfacing to his cheeks, which Kakashi seemed to notice as his eye shifted down toward Tenzo’s lips. The look in Kakashi’s eye changed in an instant, the apparent desire in his gaze draining before his eye creased with a smile.

 

“That’s how you do it,” he said, sliding off the table to stand beside Tenzo.

 

Tenzo blinked.  “Wh-What?”

 

“You wanted training in the art of seduction.”

 

“You didn’t _want_ me?” Tenzo said, surprised at the indignation in his own voice.

 

“No,” Kakashi said with a laugh, meeting Tenzo’s gaze.  “But I convinced you, didn’t I?”

 

“Why?” Tenzo balked.

 

Kakashi turned away, raising his hands in the air as he walked into his kitchen.  “You’re the one who came to me for help.”

 

“Not with _that_ part!  I told you I know how to handle that part.”

 

“I know, but I didn’t believe you.”

 

Tenzo sputtered with rage.  “You said you think I excel at this skill!”

 

“I was smooth talking you.”

 

“I don’t _believe_ you, Senpai!”

 

“Tenzo, you are an excellent Shinobi, one of the best I know.”  Kakashi pulled a milk carton from his refrigerator and set it on the counter before raising a brow at Tenzo.  “But you might want to ask the hokage to reassign someone else to that mission.”

 

“Kakashi-Senpai!” Tenzo said, exasperated.  “What was the point of all of this if you’re going to tell me to give up now?”

 

“You’ll master it soon enough,” Kakashi said, his voice lowering with solemnity.  “You might still be young for that type of assignment, that’s all. I didn’t have a handle on it until recently, to be honest.”

 

“You?” Tenzo said, mirroring Kakashi’s earlier shock with his own confession.  “The great Copy Nin didn’t instantly master something?”

 

“Don’t tell anyone.”

 

Tenzo laughed, in spite of himself.  Kakashi could drive him crazy. He could be so mean sometimes, but then he was a good friend - perhaps the best Tenzo ever had.  Deep down, Kakashi cared, though he seemed determined to never show it. And in a strange way, his telling Tenzo he was bad at seduction was his way of caring.  If he was truly concerned with Tenzo being too young for this type of tactic, maybe he was only looking out for him. It would be nicer if Kakashi relayed it to him in _that_ way, but this was the way of the black ops.  No one was ever direct. The true message was always hidden underneath the underneath.

 

For all Tenzo knew, Kakashi’s test of seduction could have been _his_ latest mission.  If Tenzo wasn’t meant to know, he never would.


	5. Friend Killers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itachi and Hiruzen

Itachi has been known as a killer of his friends, his clan, his loved ones, for longer than he can remember  _ not _ being one.  He was only a child back when he made that fateful decision, after all, and now he is dying.  It comes full circle, as does everything in life.

 

The nearness of his own demise doesn’t bother him, only the how is not what he has in mind.  Illness seems far too gentle a death for a ninja.

 

“You have that look,” Kisame says.

 

His beady eyes are watchful, observant, as he takes Itachi in with a sweep of his gaze.  Knowing Kisame is interested in his thoughts doesn't give Itachi enough inclination to share.  Kisame always takes an interest at times like this, when they’re between villages and the Akatsuki has yet to call on them.  He understands what Itachi feels anyway, without Itachi needing to disclose it.

 

Most partners might keep their distance out of fear, expecting a ninja with a reputation like Itachi Uchiha to strike again at those closest to him, but Kisame doesn’t.  Maybe it’s because Kisame was a friend killer himself in his previous life, in a different hidden village. Maybe they understand one another because they’ve both had enough of it at this point.  There is just as much wasted effort in trying to take one another out as there is in trying to save each other.

 

Might as well take the passive route, if the outcome is all the same.

 

Kisame slides a rock along his blade, cocking his head at Itachi before setting a concentrated look on the glittering cascade of sparks spraying from the sharp edge.  He doesn’t say anything. He  _ won’t _ say anything, at least not about what’s on his mind.  

 

Itachi  _ could _ kill him now.  It would be easy.  Some might say  _ just _ , given Kisame’s history.  But Itachi does not feel like filling the role of the friend killer - at least not today.

 

Itachi lets loose a soft sigh.  “Do you ever grieve them, Kisame?”

 

Kisame’s fist freezes at the top of his blade.  His brows raise as a shark-toothed grin splits his face.  “For what?”

 

His question is dismissive.  Rhetorical. He returns to his sharpening, and Itachi hums his agreement.  There is no doubt Kisame knows exactly what he was asking. And he is right.  There is no point in grieving now. Not for any of them. They are all a collective - souls sharing the same world until they leave it.  How or when they leave is no concern for a ninja, even a ninja whose hand delivered the blow.

 

Itachi _is_ a friend killer, and the only person who really matters to him anymore has to know that fact, has to _hold on_ _to it_ if he is to reach his goals.

 

Grieving won’t change anything.

 

* * *

 

 

Danzo entered Hiruzen’s office unannounced, purveying the two solemn occupants with a sweep of his one-eyed gaze.  Hiruzen sighed and ushered him into the room with a broad sweep of his arm, which was all the permission Danzo needed to close the door and take a seat, kneeling at his side.  Hiruzen tried not to frown as Danzo set his gaze on Kakashi, his eye full of knowing and approval. His approval increased Hiruzen’s guilt over what he was doing like a blade twisting in his gut.  Danzo already knew what this meeting was about, or he wouldn’t have come. Like all loyal Leaf shinobi, he was concerned about the recently discovered traitor in their midst - an especially devastating problem, seeing that one of their own elite ANBU had been turned against them.

 

“An appropriate choice, Hiruzen,” Danzo said, narrowing his eye at Kakashi’s attentive but impassive gaze.

 

Kakashi bowed his head.  “Lord Danzo.”

 

Hiruzen closed his eyes and swallowed down the bile rising in his throat.  It was getting harder and harder to remember Kakashi was only a boy still shy of his fifteenth birthday. Most teens his age would still be naive to the type of torture, betrayal, and general darkness Kakashi experienced on an everyday basis in the black ops.  But Kakashi didn’t blink an eye at the  _ worst _ of the shinobi world.  This was how Hiruzen already knew he would accept this mission.  

 

Hiruzen’s stomach churned as he pushed aside any thoughts he had about changing his mind.  He hated what was happening to Minato’s sole surviving student, but it couldn’t be helped. Danzo was right.  Kakashi  _ was _ the best man for this mission, whether Hiruzen liked it or not.  He had a responsibility as the hokage to protect the people of the Leaf Village from their enemies, and that meant using the best resources he had whenever trouble would arise.

 

Sharingan Kakashi was a great asset.  He’d earned respect among ANBU circles.  He already carried with his name the title of Friend Killer, which spread in whispers through the village since Rin Nohara’s tragic death.  He was also a member of their village who deserved as much protection from his hokage as anyone else. Hiruzen couldn’t save his soul, but he would protect Kakashi’s reputation to the best of his ability.  No one needed to know what he would do, no one but the three people in this room and the ANBU members directly affected by this.

 

Danzo slanted his chin at Hiruzen. “Have you explained Kakashi’s mission to him yet?”

 

“No,” Hiruzen said, his voice hoarse.

 

“Then allow me,” Danzo said with a smile that seemed eerily tranquil.  With the acquiescence of Hiruzen’s nod, he set his gaze on Kakashi again.  “ANBU Wolf has been leaking confidential Leaf security intel to the Hidden Cloud for quite some time, Kakashi.”

 

Kakashi snorted.  “Wolf?”

 

A smirk crept across Danzo’s face.  Hiruzen bowed his head. Kakashi’s visible eye went wide.

 

“Lord Danzo?” Kakashi breathed.  “Lord Third? This isn’t a joke?”

 

“I’m afraid not,” Hiruzen said, shaking his head.  “Wolf’s actions have caused the deaths of several Leaf Shinobi...including Otter.”

 

Hiruzen watched Kakashi’s jaw tighten and gaze darken.  Otter had died in action two weeks back when Kakashi and his team were sent to retrieve a pair of runaway genin.  It was one of the easier missions for ANBU. Certainly no one expected a death from what appeared at the time to be a freak cliffside accident.  But later Intel had revealed that Otter died with some secrets - secrets she’d discovered in the course of her own undercover mission regarding their teammate.

 

“Wolf’s been like a  _ mentor _ to Otter,” Kakashi said, his controlled anger bubbling to the surface.  “She looked up to him.”

 

“And he looked down on her,” Danzo said.

 

Kakashi met his gaze.  “No. He didn’t.”

 

“Kakashi,” Hiruzen said.  

 

He paused to steady himself.  He eased forward, locking eyes with Kakashi while searching for his pipe with nimble fingers tracing the hard wood of his desk.  When he found it, he was quick to light up. These missions were the hardest to assign. The nicotine filled his lungs, but did little to allay the grief befalling him.  He could never be prepared to order the death of one of their own. He was sure the cloud of smoke surrounding his face wouldn’t hide the transparency of his reluctance.

 

“Keeping Wolf around,” he said, pausing for another puff of his pipe, “is too great a risk to the Hidden Leaf.”

 

Kakashi slanted a look at Hiruzen.  His eye darted to Danzo, calculating.  Danzo folded his hands in his lap, the robes falling around him as softly as he sat.

 

Kakashi met Hiruzen’s gaze again, his half-lidded eye heavy with acceptance.  “When do you want me to do it, Professor?”

 

“On your team’s next mission,” Hiruzen said quietly, looking away.  “Your team will learn of this one way or another, so there is no need to hide it from them, but no one else is to know.  You may use whatever method you deem necessary. Just make sure Wolf never speaks to our enemies again.”

 

“Chidori seems appropriate,” Kakashi muttered wryly.

 

“And Kakashi,” Danzo said sharply, causing Kakashi to snap his gaze in his direction.  “Failure is not an option. You can’t... _ change your mind _ on this one.”

 

Kakashi’s eye curved, just slightly, as his mask shifted with the semblance of a smile.  Hiruzen tensed, recognizing the message underneath Danzo’s words as clear as day. He could never forget the way Danzo attempted to use Kakashi in betraying him when he first retook the hat.  He could never forget Kakashi’s loyalty when he revealed their secret plot before it had been too late for him. It was only all their years of friendship and  _ knowing _ how Danzo committed his life to protecting the Hidden Leaf that allowed Hiruzen to overlook  _ that _ betrayal, and not this one.

 

When Hiruzen looked to Kakashi again, Kakashi was  _ definitely _ smiling.  “Whatever my hokage orders, I obey, Lord Danzo.”

 

“As any good ANBU should,” Danzo said, narrowing his eye at Kakashi.

 

“Kakashi,” Hiruzen said, heaving a sigh and watching the gray cloud in front of him dissipate until Kakashi was a clear face again.  “I am sorry.”

 

“No need to apologize to me, Lord Third,” Kakashi said, rising from his kneeling position with ease.  “I’m sure if the shinobi who lost their lives at Wolf’s hands could speak, they would express their appreciation for this.  Lord Danzo,” he said, bowing without pause. “Lord Third.”

 

He walked back to the door, his gaze as unreadable as ever.  Hiruzen didn’t need any inflection in Kakashi’s tone or any visible shift in Kakashi’s expression to read the ridicule in his polite words.  But Hiruzen would take it. He deserved it. No traitor should’ve ever been so closely associated with the Hidden Leaf’s most elite shinobi. Hiruzen would like to believe he could prevent this from ever happening again, but this wasn’t the first time a traitor had to be removed from the ranks.  He was resignedly certain it wouldn’t be the last.

 

As long as there would be ANBU to guard the hokage and all his secrets, there would be traitors finding ways to betray them.

 

ANBU would always be there to wipe out those traitors, no matter how integral to their team those traitors could be.

  
  



End file.
